Pretoria – Residents of Lebanon in Winterveldt received their title deeds from Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga and MMC for Housing and Human Settlements Mandla Nkomo.
At least 15 title deeds were conferred to beneficiaries at the handover ceremony.
The handover followed the process by the city to write-off the municipal service accounts of these households in arrears to enable Nedbank to proceed with the conveyancing of the houses, according to Nkomo.
Residents had been in a long-standing dispute with the former North West Housing Corporation (NWHC) after the latter entered into a housing investment agreement with the erstwhile Bophuthatswana Building Society (BBS).
According to the agreement, the BBS undertook to support the NWHC’s housing development initiatives in the Winterveld area by providing mortgage-backed loan funding to beneficiaries qualifying in terms of the defined lending criteria.
"Owing to structural defects at the properties concerned, and owing to a lack of remedial actions from NHWC, the beneficiaries embarked on a mortgage bond boycott which is still in force.
"Most of the houses have been repossessed by Nedbank but beneficiaries have refused to move out from the properties and failed to fulfil their financial obligations to the bank,"Nkomo said.